| Contents | Introduction | Links | Home |
Three Rivers
Hudson~Mohawk~Schoharie
History From America's Most Famous Valleys
Chapter Six, Benton's History of Herkimer County
Chapter VI
Miscellaneous Incidents, from 1783 to the Present Time-Hostile Feelings towards the Indians and Tories after Peace-Old England District-Justice of the Peace Appointed in 1772-1784-Immigration before the War-New England Emigration-character of the Population-Militia Officers-Allusion to the Shay's War in Massachusetts-Justices Appointed in 1791-Difficulty about the Stamps-Clerk's Office Burnt in 1804-War of 1812-Militia of the County-Bounty Lands-State of the County after the War-Cholera-Jail-Court House-Clerk's Office.
The restoration of peace between the former colonies and the crown did not restore internal tranquility within the borders of the upper valley. The surviving inhabitants awoke, not as from a pleasing dream, whose thought, if so it may be called, had run riot in Elysium, but to the sad and woeful reality of slaughtered relatives, ruined habitations, wasted fields, and a devastated country. When they first went abroad from the blockhouses, forts and places of refuge, would they not remember the hand which had inflicted the wrong and been made the instrument of a cruel and tyrannous chastisement? The Indians, those who were known to belong to the hostile clans of the Iroquois, could not safely pass through or sojourn in the country. Not a few of them, who ventured upon the hazardous exploit, forfeited their lives. The men who had been almost abandoned by the country, during the whole war; and particularly during the harassing campaign of 1780, to their won resources and exertions, felt it to be no wrong to shoot an Indians, when and wherever they met him, in peace or war.
But the most sore trial the survivors were put to, and the greatest cause of irritation they had to suffer, was the return of the Tories after the peace, claiming a restoration of their forfeited estates, and compensation for property destroyed and taken for public use during the war. A unanimous feeling of resistance to this claim pervaded the whole valley, and, for several years after the war, he must have been a bold and resolute man, who would visit the country a second time on such a mission. If one of these Mohawk Tories got out of the country on his first visit after the peace, without meeting with some disagreeable interviews with the German population, he was a lucky man.
The "old England" district, embracing a small portion of the territory in the south part of this county, and a portion of Otsego and Madison counties, on the Unadilla river, erected by the colonial government, was organized as a part of Montgomery county in 1784, and officers appointed by the court of general sessions. Rudolph Shoemaker and Frederick Bellinger were appointed justices of the peace in Tryon county, May 26th, 1772; and George Henry Bell and Andrew Finck, Jr., were appointed to the same office in Montgomery county, July 8, 1784. These persons then lived within the present limits of this county.
The county had received a considerable accession to its population, between 1725 and 1775, from the country below, from Columbia county, New York and German, chiefly of German extraction, with some Low Dutch or Hollanders from the borders of the Hudson. The din of war had scarcely ceased along the valley, ere the study New Englander was seen wending his toilsome way along the valley, with his face set towards the Royal Grant, or the woodland regions of Warren, Columbia, Litchfield and Winfield, The earliest New England settlers found their way into the woods north and south of the river, about the year 1785, and from that time forward to 1800, the emigration from the south-part of this state and the Eastern states was very rapid, and exceeded ten thousand the first fifteen years after it fairly set in. The foreign emigration was nothing during this period. The Celt could not be spared, the loyal Scotch and English would not come, and the wars in Germany were consuming the population of that empire. No event of sufficient importance to attract special attention occurred from 1783 to 1791, except the organization of two towns in 1788, which is noticed in another chapter.
I will notice here the first organization after the war, in 1786, October 2d, made in the regiment of local militia in the German Flats and Kingsland districts, and arranged as follows:
Field
and Regimental staff-Henry Staring, lieut. Colonel; Peter Weaver, major,
1st battalion; Patrick Campbell, major, 2d battalion; John Frank,
adjutant; Melchert Fols, paymaster; William Petrie, surgeon.
1st company-Jacob Petry, captain; Dederick Petry, lieutenant; William
Father, ensign.
2d company-John Meyer, captain; William Clapsaddle, lieutenant; Henry Frank,
Ensign.
3d company-Adam Staring, captain; Liutwick Campell, lieutenant, Lawrence Herter,
ensign.
4th company-Peter P. Bellinger, captain; Joost Herchimer, lieutenant;
Peter Fox, ensign.
5th company-Michael Meyer, captain; Peter F. Bellinger, lieutenant;
George Weatirce, ensign.
6th company, (light infantry)-William Colbreath, captain; Daniel
C. White, lieutenant; George J. Weaver, ensign.
These militia arrangements must indicate the numbers and strength of the population capable of bearing arms; and although three years of peace had intervened in which there had been a large influx of population, quite enough to make up two companies, we have three organized companies less at this time than there were in 1775. The names of the officers are copied as found in the council minutes. Ensign William Father, I think, represents William Feeter, and George Weatirce, represents George Weaver.
The recuperative energies of the Teutonic race were not long unseen or unfelt when lift free to act, and the fields that were laid waste by war for years, again waved with golden harvests and the accomplished woodman's axe was doing its work in the sturdy forest. Oh! What a priceless boon to man had grown from the stern calamities of a war whose dirge had just been sung by mourning thousands.
A fact which to some extent illustrates the American character has come to my notice while preparing this work for the press. It is this. A considerable portion of the New England emigration between 1787 and 1793 was from Massachusetts. Many of these people had been implicated in or connected with the disturbances in that state which terminated in what has been called Shay's rebellion. Now the history of that affair is briefly this. During the contest recently ended that state had contributed largely in men, money and credit to the support of the common cause, its commerce had been destroyed and its manufactories languished on the return of peace by the introduction of foreign fabrics. The whole debt of the state, domestic and due to the confederation was about $10,000,000 and in the year 1785 a tax of one and a half millions of dollars was levied on the people and property in the state, equal to about four dollars for every man, woman and child in it. With no money to meet this heavy excessive burden the commercial and agricultural classes became more and more indebted to the state. John Hancock resigned the office of governor, and was succeeded by Mr. Bowdoin by a legislative appointment. Soon after his reelection in 1786, numerous symptoms of discontent were exhibited in different parts of the state, and especially in the western towns, whose population was confined to agricultural pursuits.
In August 1786 a convention of delegates from 50 towns convened at Hatfield, Hampshire county "to consider and provide for the grievances they suffered." In consequence of the disorderly proceeding of the people in different parts of the state; little attention was given to the petition forwarded to the government by the convention. The legislature met in September following, passed some stringent laws against disorderly and riotous meetings of the people, suspended the writ of habeas corpus eight months, and took some measures to relieve the public burdens. The disturbances continued and several of the leaders were arrested and confined in Boston jail. The main object of these people seems to have been to prevent the sittings of the courts of common pleas which they alleged imposed a heavy burden on the public. About 1000 met at Worcester, but committed no other offense than to place guards round the houses where the judges put up, to present them from holding the courts. Wile here, Daniel Shays urged them to proceed to Boston and release by force the prisoners confined in jail there.
The project was not carried out. They obstructed the holding of the courts in some of the western counties in the state. They afterwards made an attempt, in 1787, to take the Springfield arsenal. They were met by Gen. Shepard at the head of 1000 militia, and after having three men killed the rest dispersed.
These rebels, as they were called, then petitioned for a pardon for the offenses committed by the, but it was refused because they stated they had reason to complain of the wrongs and sufferings they endured. They had collected in a considerable body at Petersham in the winter of 1787-8, when they were surprised by General Lincoln, who took 150 prisoners, and the remainder returned home or left the state. This was the last of the famous Shay's rebellion. No lives were lost except on the part of these disaffected people. They do not seem to have aimed at the overthrow of the government, but sought relief from unbearable burdens. They took an unwise course. The remedy did not lay in that direction. John Hancock was again elected governor in the spring of 1788. He was a moderate politician of the federal school. The state was federal when the people arranged themselves into parties. In the western part, the seat of these disturbances, the anti-federalists or republicans contended resolutely for victory at the first election under the federal or national constitution, and in some places had a majority. The head and front of this offending could not have been very grievous. There were no executions for treason. There can be no doubt the government of the state was at that time very exacting and intolerant, and the people had not then learned the true method of self-government.
I resuming the history of the county, after the above digression, it may be proper to state the following persons were appointed justices of the peace; on the 27th March, 1790, George Henry Bell, John Frank, Henry Dygert, Michael Myers, John Frank, Patrick Campbell, William Veeder, William Dygert, Jun., Moses Foot, Benjamin Bowen, Hanyost Schoonmaker, Melchert Folts, Lodowick Campbell, Johannes Finck and Abraham Hardenburgh. These persons are believed to have then lived within the limits of this county.
Soon after President Adam's famous stamp act went into operation, and the agent for vending stamps had been furnished with them to sell, the people in different parts of the county became a good deal excited, and a combination was set on foot to destroy the obnoxious stamps, or prevent their being sold. At the fall musters or trainings, the people marched down from the hills, north and south, and up from the valleys, to Herkimer, "armed and equipped as then law directed," to make war on the stamps, with field piece ready charged. They tore down the agent's sign, demanded of him a promise that he would not sell the paper eagles, and otherwise behaved somewhat noisily, but committed no other act of violence. It was a bloodless affair. A. number of the leading men were indicted and taken to Albany under arrest, when Governor Jay met them, and after giving them sound and judicious advice sent them home. One can not help thinking that the worthy governor was somewhat annoyed, during the conference, with the reflection "that he, not long before, had been in arms against his king and the mother country on account of stamps and stamped paper."
In March or April, 1804, the county clerk's office was consumed by fire with all the records and papers it contained. Mr. Joab Griswold had held the office of county clerk from March 19th, 1798, and Mr. Elihu Griswold was appointed in his place April 6th, 1804. The office was burned in the night, and it had been arranged previously that the new incumbent should take possession of the office the day after the fire occurred.
"In the war with Great Britain, declared by the United States on the 18th day of June, 1812," the militia of Herkimer county behaved nobly. They claimed no exemption from service when the governor ordered them to the frontier to protect and defend the state from hostile aggression or foreign invasion. It is no disparagement to the militia of any other county, to say the Herkimer militia met these calls and suffered the privations of the camp with a patriotic devotion and zeal not excelled by any of them.
A detached regiment under Col. C. P. Bellinger, had been ordered to Sacketts Harbor before war was declared, under a six months' draft. Others followed soon after, and in 1813 and 1814, volunteers, detached, and the militia en mass, were on the lake and St. Lawrence frontier nearly the whole time. Companies and regiments succeeding others, whose terms of service had expired. The pay granted by the United States was no compensation to the farmer and mechanic, and substituted service could only be afforded by the wealthy. If the sacrifice was great, each man could well console himself with the reflection that he had done his duty to his country. Governor Tompkins bestowed high praises upon the citizen soldiers of Herkimer county, and it was well deserved.
It is now more than forty years since these events happened, and many farms have been and are being located under the operation of the bounty land laws of 1850 and 1855, by the descendants and relatives of those who performed the military service. Although a land recipient under the former law, I can not admire a policy which is dictated by a present expediency and not by a rule of equal and exact justice. There are thousands who are excluded, whose husbands and fathers performed service as meritorious as any now living; and there are other thousands, long since laid in their graves, to whom this little pittance would have been grateful; whose hunger it would have assuaged, and whose cold and palsied limbs it would have warmed. But those can not vote now. They are tenants of the graveyard, under an eternal lease; an immovable fixture, and can not swell the population of the illimitable west.
The restoration of peace with Great Britain in 1815, found our population in a state of universal embarrassment, which they did not recover from fully in ten years. The merchants with large stocks of goods on hand, found themselves undersold by more than on-half on the new importations. A series of cold and unproductive seasons, from 1816 to 1820, had cut off the surplus of agricultural products. Farming lands during the war had been sold at very high prices, and were eagerly sought for at nearly four times the value they bore from 1817 to 1825. The county did not produce exportable commodities sufficient to balance the mercantile imports, and shinplasters were the circulating medium. Cheesman's plasters were a more sure remedy for the public ailments than his balsams. Lands sold during the war at such prices that the purchaser, who paid one-third of the consideration money at the sale, and kept the interest on the balance paid up, could not the first ten years after the peace sell them for a price sufficient to pay the balance of principal due. In other words he could not give them away and get indemnity against his bond. The state expenditures in constructing the Erie canal gave some relief; but the completion and opening of that great work brought the grain-growing regions of the west into direct completions with the then staple agricultural product of the county, wheat. The Mohawk valley had more than seventy-five years enjoyed, without competition from the west, and advantages of the Albany and eastern markets. The county recovered slowly from its depressed and embarrassed condition. It lost, however, very considerable of its German population between 1818 and 1830.
The Asiatic cholera has never prevailed in the country to much extent. On its first appearance in this country in 1832, when fright and apprehension nearly paralyzed the whole community, a few cases occurred in several of the villages, most of them fatal, and along the canal. Since that time, however, the county has been nearly exempt from that dreadful pestilence.
In the years 1833, 1834 and 1835, the legislature authorized the supervisors of the county to contract loans to the amount of $10,300 to erect a new jail and purchase a site for it. An annual tax was also levied to reimburse the principal of these loans by installments and pay the interest. The building is of stone, procured at Little Falls, strong and permanent. The interior arrangements are such as to afford comfort to and insure the safety of offenders, Martin Easterbrooks contracted to complete the mason work, and Edmund Varney, Cornelius T. E. Van Horn, Isaac S. Ford, Jacob F. Christman, Warner Folts, Frederick P. Bellinger, and Charles Gray, were the commissioners appointed to superintend the erection of the jail.
On the night of January 25th, 1834, the old court house and jail was destroyed by fire. This was an old two-story structure of wood, and had been standing for many years. The jail on the ground floor had been found unsafe, and besides the public buildings at that time did not reflect much credit upon the county. On the 31st of March, 1834, the legislature authorized the supervisors to borrow from the common school fund, on the credit of the county, four thousand six hundred dollars to build a new court house, and directed a tax of five hundred dollars a year to be levied on the county to refund the loan and pay the interest. Francis E. Spinner, Arphaxed Loomis and Prentice Yeomans were named in the act as commissioners to superintend the erection of the building.
The court house is a handsome structure of brick, standing nearly in the center of the village of Herkimer. The jail is on the opposite side of the street. The rooms on the first floor of the court house are arranged to suit the public convenience, but the interior arrangements of the court room may be easily improved. Owing to some defect or oversight in the construction, the long side walls of the house began to give way and swell out, not long after the house was completed. They were however soon secured by iron rods extending across the building. These rods or bars were inserted in their place when red with heat, and being secured with proper fastenings at the ends on the outside of the walls the contraction of the iron brought them quite into place. The citizens of Little Falls did not fail to make an effort at this time, to change the county seat and bring it to them; but with two-thirds or perhaps three-fourths of the population of the county against them, they "hardly made a ripple."
A new fire proof clerk's office, of brick, was erected in 1847. Mr. Aaron Hall, builder.
Copyright © 1998, -- 2003. Berry Enterprises. All rights reserved. All items on the site are copyrighted. While we welcome you to use the information provided on this web site by copying it, or downloading it; this information is copyrighted and not to be reproduced for distribution, sale, or profit.